Hunter Biden, like Donald Trump, is now a convicted felon – a personal and political blow to his father, US President Joe Biden, complicating his 2024 re-election campaign.
The younger Biden is the first child of a sitting US president to be convicted of a crime. He was found guilty Tuesday of violating federal law for illegally purchasing a gun during a period when he was using crack cocaine. Jurors handed down their verdict after three hours of deliberation, capping a weeklong trial in a prosecution brought by his father’s own Justice Department.
That outcome, and a new trial against Hunter Biden — over tax charges beginning in September, just two months before voters go to the polls — threaten to stymie Joe Biden’s campaign, presenting a painful messaging test in his race against his predecessor, Trump. The president has attacked Trump as a “convicted felon” to take advantage of the fact that the latter is the first former US president to be found guilty of a crime for falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments.
